Mar. 08, 2012

Regardless of whether you think it deserves to be a planet or not, wouldn’t Pluto look great stuck to the right hand corner of your electric bill? NASA’s New Horizons mission is fostering a campaign to have the USPS issue a commemorative stamp honoring Pluto, and the spacecraft currently on its way to the planet/ former planet. You can sign the petition for the stamp here.

The concept stamp (above, right) was designed by astronomical artist Dan Durda; he’s also a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute. He’s designed some of the art for the New Horizons mission, including the work below. You can see more of his work here. And tune in this Friday for a talk with Durda and New Horizons mission leader Alan Stern.

I attempted to show a geologically interesting world with surface features reminiscent of what has been seen on Neptune’s large moon Triton–active geysers, interesting patches of different colored and different brightness ice deposits….We know Pluto to be an equally interesting world, we just don’t yet know the details, so this, like the new stamp image, was meant to evoke some of that detail.”